walnut burle veneer (1 Viewer)

[Andrus_R]

Glossy polyurethane finish almost gave me a woody(pun intended). WOW. Too bad it costs $12 per foot! at local woodworker's supply. If i want like 4 by 8 sheet of that stuff it comes out to around $400 just for the veneer, ouch. Either that or Elm burl, another wowzer or birdseye maple(Ohhhhh). Since i ain't gonna plonk down 400 for just veneer i had to settle with honduras mahogany aka real mahogany for $1.50/foot-cheap hee hee hee. No wonder most audio manufacturers's standard finish is oak, and cherry. They are the cheapest with mahogany coming in close third along with birch and pine. Pine looks nasty though, knotted or not.

I'm glad i didn't go the sonotube route. I would've missed out on these absolutely beautiful veneers. Pic's don't do justice.


walnut burl

Elm burl

mahogany

Oh yeah almost forgot, it's been only 3 days and ampman's already ragging on me to send it back hmm. Oh well by majority vote of confidence, i'm sending the original defective driver back and I'm keeping the replacement. Besides tinsel leads seem longer on the replacement driver : ... Go figure.

All the parts are ready and the finished picture of the sub wrapped in glossy mahogany is swimming around in my head. Ohh ahhh it's going to glorious. The local community college i go to has just about every woodworking machine known to man. Plus they have like million clamps and gallons of titebond hehehe. Oh man,i can't wait til next tuesday. Screw SVS,Hsu,velo blah blah, thank you ADIRE!

Sorry for the ramble, I'm getting pretty excited here.

 

[Hank Frankenberg]

Yep, it's beautiful. Have you seen figured Sapele or block mottled Makore? Mmmmm-mmmm!

 

[Mark_E_Smith]

How about Austrailian Lacewood

 

[Brett DiMichele]

How about Gel Coated Woven Carbon Fiber and Polyurethaned
Rosewood....

 

[Aaron_Smith]

I've been working on a pair of sound clearing house speakers, cabinets of my own design. I wrapped them in 2-ply cherry veneer with the famed Bunge technique (which works like a charm- I got everything perfect on the first try). Last night I finally finished sanding and applied my first coat of tung oil-- and all I can say is, WOW! The figure of the wood just popped right through.
I didn't use any sort of stain or dye on the cherry- it's already beautiful and it will darken naturally over time. I am also not planning to apply any sort of varnish over the oil finish; the way a piece of finished wood feels is as important to me as the way it looks, and I've always loved that silky-smooth feel of an oil finish on a close-grained wood.
This stuff is so much fun!

 

[Brian Bunge]

Aaron,

I'm glad my technique (and the description) worked well for you. Cherry veneer is awesome, huh? Wait till you see my finished Tumult enclosure. Cherry veneer with faux marble top. Brett has seen pics so far and loved it. I sent them to Hank too but he hasn't responded yet. :frowning:

 

[Andrus_R]

What technique?

 

[Aaron_Smith]

Search the archives for Brian Bunge veneer; in one of these threads, Brian gave very descriptive instructions on how to wrap a single piece of veneer over 4 sides of an enclosure. The technique looks great (check out Brian's web page, his work speaks for itself). It is important to round over the edges of the enclosure; how much depends on what type of veneer you're using. I got a very nice 3/4" radius round over bit from Grizzly for $25 (my new favorite router bit source). I'll try to take some pictures tonight.
You're right Brian, the cherry is beautiful. I'm surprised by how quickly it darkens... after sanding the wood was much lighter than before. I can't wait to see the pics of your Tumult.
One thing I'm not entirely happy with- the end grain on the top veneer has darkened quite a bit from soaking up the oil so fast. It is a minor flaw-- in the future I may try using a stain conditioner before applying the finish.

 

[Chris Carswell]

That is some nice veneer Andrus but yes a bit much for me spend as well. Stain conditioner can be a great thing. Always best to do a test piece to see how the wood absorbs the stain then go from there.
These are my price winners that I've found looking over time. Some are only available in shorts (IIRC) but if you are good at book or quartermatching you could be in for a real treat

 

[Andrus_R]

WOOOOWW. They look fantastic Chris, specially satin wood. It has nice warm glow like comfortable blanket. Magnify the beauty about 5X in real life vs jpeg image, I'd say sub can be the best looking "furniture" in the livingroom.

 

[Dan Wesnor]

One word: eBay

If you're willing to learn how to deal with raw wood veneer, just about anything you want can be had for $1/sq. ft.

 

[Dan Wesnor]

And another tip: Figures and burls should never be bought sight unseen. Look at the pictures on eBay to see why. When you mail-order, ugly walnut veneer costs just as much as the beautiful stuff.

Yew like that shown in the picture above (pippy yew, or cluster burl yew) is very rare. You'd be lucky to get that stuff at any price. I've been looking for a good lot of yew for more than a year now, and am still emptry handed.